ROSTOV-ON-DON, RUSSIA - JUNE 23 : South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook attend the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Group F match between Korea Republic and Mexico at the Rostov Arena in Rostov-On-Don, Russia on June 23, 2018. (Photo by Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Germany’s late winner against Sweden kept South Korea’s hopes of reaching the last sixteen of the Russia 2018 World Cup alive, albeit hanging by a microscopically thin thread. But South Korean President Moon Jae-in is already thinking of the 2030 World Cup.

President Moon sat with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino to watch South Korea’s two-one loss to Mexico, and according to South Korean media, he reconfirmed his intention of South Korea joint-hosting the World Cup in 2030, possibly as part of a North East Asian joint bid with China and Japan. President Moon had previously mentioned his intentions when Infantino visited Seoul last year.

Relations between the two Koreas are slowly improving and if North Korea does follow up on its promises of denuclearization then the political situation on the Korean Peninsula may well be very different in 2030 than it was before the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Infantino said that when he first met President Moon in 2017 he didn’t think a joint-Korean bid would be realistic, but that since then a lot has changed on the peninsula.

North and South Korea created a joint team to compete in Womens’ Ice Hockey at PyeongChang 2018, and are currently discussing plans to send joint teams to compete in some sports such as canoeing at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia in August and September.

Still, there is a long way to go before President Moon’s dream can become a competitive bid, let alone a winning one. Before the bid could even take shape, he would have to get North Korea and the South Korean soccer association to back the idea.

Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay have already confirmed their interest in hosting the World Cup in 2030. Morocco is also bidding again for the tournament. The North African country received a low score in FIFA’s technical report last time around, and will have to show that it will actually build its proposed infrastructure in order to improve its chances for 2030.

England may also bid for the 2030 World Cup, either by itself or, more likely, as a joint bid with some of the other parts of the UK. England has UEFA’s backing and would be very financially attractive for FIFA as well as falling within the best time zone for global coverage.

A joint Korean or North East Asian bid would have to compete with these other bids even if the situation on the Peninsula does change enough to make North Korea's participation feasible. And it may also suffer from FIFA’s preference of rotating the World Cup around different continents as several ASEAN countries are planning a joint bid for the 2034 World Cup.

Like President Moon’s dream of a joint Korean World Cup, South Korea’s chances of extending its stay at the Russia 2018 World Cup look slim.

The South Korean team’s performance against Mexico was much better than their lackluster showing against Sweden, but they will need to beat Germany by more than one goal and hope Mexico beat Sweden if they are to progress. Toni Kroos’ last minute winner for Germany against Sweden means that Germany could still finish top of Group F if they beat South Korea comfortably and Mexico lose to Sweden.

This article was edited on June 25th to highlight the possibility of a joint North East Asian bid.